OBS. 5.—­The precise origin of the points, it is not easy to trace in the depth of antiquity.  It appears probable, from ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, that the period is the oldest of them; and it is said by some, that the first system of punctuation consisted in the different positions of this dot alone.  But after the adoption of the small letters, which improvement is referred to the ninth century, both the comma and the colon came into use, and also the Greek note of interrogation.  In old books, however, the comma is often found, not in its present form, but in that of a straight stroke, drawn up and down obliquely between the words.  Though the colon is of Greek origin, the practice of writing it with two dots we owe to the Latin authors, or perhaps to the early printers of Latin books.  The semicolon was first used in Italy, and was not adopted in England till about the year 1600.  Our marks for questions and exclamations were also derived from the same source, probably at a date somewhat earlier.  The curves of the parenthesis have likewise been in use for several centuries.  But the clash is a more recent invention:  Lowth, Ash, and Ward,—­Buchanan, Bicknell, and Burn,—­though they name all the rest, make no mention of this mark; but it appears by their books, that they all occasionally used it.

OBS. 6—­Of the colon it may be observed, that it is now much less frequently used than it was formerly; its place being usurped, sometimes by the semicolon, and sometimes by the period.  For this ill reason, some late grammarians have discarded it altogether.  Thus Felton:  “The COLON is now so seldom used by good writers, that rules for its use are unnecessary.”—­Concise Manual of English Gram., p. 140.  So Nutting:  “It will be noticed, that the colon is omitted in this system; because it is omitted by the majority of the writers of the present age; three points, with the dash, being considered sufficient to mark the different lengths of the pauses.”—­Practical Grammar, p. 120.  These critics, whenever they have occasion to copy such authors as Milton and Pope, do not scruple to mutilate their punctuation by putting semicolons or periods for all the colons they find.  But who cannot perceive, that without the colon, the semicolon becomes an absurdity?  It can no longer be a semicolon, unless the half can remain when the whole is taken away!  The colon, being the older point of the two, and once very fashionable, is doubtless on record in more instances than the semicolon; and, if now, after both have been in common use for some hundreds of years, it be found out that only one is needed, perhaps it would be more reasonable to prefer the former.  Should public opinion ever be found to coincide with the suggestions of the two authors last quoted, there will be reason to regret that Caxton, the old English typographer of the fifteenth century, who for a while successfully withstood, in